12:37).
Idolatry
Our first charge is that she is an IDOLATROUS CHURCH.
But it may be asked, Does Rome really teach the worship of idols? Archdeacon Sinclair, writing on Image Worship, said:—
The twenty-fifth session of the Council of Trent decrees that the images of Christ and the Virgin Mary, and of the other saints, are especially to be had and retained in the churches, and that honor and veneration are to be paid to them.
From the Protestant Alliance Magazine, July, 1922, we cull the following:—
The Creed of Pope Pius IV teaches thus:—
I most firmly assert that the image of the Christ, of the Mother of God, ever Virgin, and also of the other saints ought to be had and retained, and that due honor and veneration are to be given them.
The Catechism of the Council of Trent says:—
‘‘It is lawful to have images in the church, and to give honor and worship unto them,"
Images of the saints are put in churches as well, that they may be worshipped.
Rome and the Bible
Our next charge is that Rome is HOSTILE to the B
IBLE
, and both prohibits, and when unable to do that, discourages the reading of the Scriptures among her adherents.
Pope Pius VII, in 1816, denounced Bible Societies as a crafty device by which the very foundations of religion are undermined, a pestilence which must be remedied and abolished.
The authorized Catholic Dictionary records, with apparent satisfaction, that Leo XII, Pius VIII, and Pius IX have likewise, in their turn, warned Catholics against the Protestant Bible Societies. Leo XIII, in 1897, prohibited all versions in any vernacular language made by non-Catholics, and specially those published by the Bible Societies.
In the same document, he altogether prohibited vernacular versions even by Catholics, unless approved by the Holy See or published under the vigilant care of the bishops, with annotations.
Rome knows that an open Bible, without Notes, spells her ruin. For no Scripture teaches anything about Purgatory, the worship of Mary or the
